Good morning! Whew. That stuff is over for at least, what, a couple of months before the 2016 election campaigns start? Getting a dozen e-mails a day from campaigns that somehow mined our e-mail addresses, probably from years ago. All the special editions of the various blogs and newsletters and on-line magazines I subscribe to. Getting 4-5 robocalls a day to “conduct a survey” or “remind me to mail my ballot” or “what a nasty evil monster so and so is” (as if you have to tell me that!). And the junk mail: slick and colorful and full of lies: four or five a day. We joked about setting up a special “campaign mail” recycling bin near the cluster of mail boxes at the end of our street, and whether we could use the Ram 3500 1-ton to haul it or would have to use the trailer. It is ALMOST enough to make me sympathetic to the mail carriers.

Mama’s Note: Possibly one of the minor benefits of not being “registered” and not having voted in many years… I got no mailings, no campaign emails or phone calls. Zip. I discussed the election a few times with friends, and once on a forum, but that was it. Not voting has no downside that I can discover.

On to news:

Life and death:

This weekend, a young woman with brain cancer killed herself after moving to Oregon where she could do so with medical help; the story contrasts ANOTHER young woman fighting brain cancer who is enjoying every last minute of precious life she has by doing things like playing college basketball and encouraging people to never give up. Living often requires courage: killing yourself to avoid pain is not courageous, it is despicable. Yes, her choice, her right to do so, but what a waste of life.

In a horrible tale, yet with hope, a young mother was beaten by her “boy-friend” and died in hospital, but not before doctors were able to save her late second-trimester baby, who is so far hanging on. It is wonderful the child was saved, although it was younger than so many children who are deemed “unwanted” and killed in cold blood in so many horrific ways. But the real crime here is that the young mother-to-be, now dead, had nothing to protect her from the man who killed her. Because too many people would rather people like her die horrible deaths than let her easily and inexpensively buy and carry a weapon.

Mama’s Note: Most of that is due to the anti-self defense indoctrination. There is no reason at all why this woman could not have defended herself. First, self defense does not start or end with a gun, but with a mindset and attention to all the other things so necessary.

Nobody needs permission to practice all of these things, making it far less likely one will be attacked – even if they don’t have a gun. I Am NOT A Victim. If you want to read more about it, click the link.

A Shiite Muslim religious leader in Sydney was shot while locking up an Islamic prayer hall early Monday in what local media are describing as the possible spread of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence to Australia. ISIS (the Caliphate) supporters had made threats, and seem to have followed through. Remember that Islam traditionally has spent just as much time and effort killing each other over religious differences as they have killing infidels. Of course, many Sunni groups (like the Caliphate) consider Shi’a to be “infidels” and dogs (an unclean animal under Islamic doctrine). An eyewitness told a TV reporter: ” “They shot an innocent guy, a family man. This is Australia, it’s a safe country. How can this happen?” Well, duh, Austrailians disarmed themselves years ago, so the villains who don’t follow the law can arm themselves and attack people with little or no fear that their victims can fight back. Australia is NOT a safe country and idiots like this are why: they went along with having their liberties, their rights, stolen in the interests of bogus safety.

Mama’s Note: I was very sad to learn about this yesterday. I can’t even begin to count all of the hours I enjoyed listened to their program as I drove the long, hot miles when I was working in So. Calif. Rest in peace, Tom. And blessings to Ray, his brother.

Politics and religion:

In Delaware, we are reminded that tyranny does NOT have to JUST be government-based: a Noah’s Ark set at a child’s playground in a public park has been removed after atheist grandparents complained, because it had a Bible verse and they were offended. Actually, it wasn’t even a Bible verse, it was nine pages that read like a children’s early-reading book that told the story from Genesis. To call it a “christian message” is nonsense, just as there was and is no way to claim that it is government promoting a religion, any more than a display of the Three Little Pigs is promoting hunting wolves, or a display of William Tell is encouraging kids to shoot apples off each other’s heads.

An Episcopal diocese in Wisconsin has publically endorsed gun control on a massive scale. It joins many other political agenda items that the organization has advocated, and may explain in part a decline in attendance of 35% in just over a decade, according to the story. These people do not want freedom for themselves OR others, and allow their fears to rule their faith. I think it is particularly important to note that this religious group, though they claim to be “christian,” are NOT: what they are teaching and advocating has NO basis in the Bible or in the original christian faith, which taught the right to self-defense (not that it was mandatory to exercise that right) was given to us by God.

If followers of Christ choose NOT to arm or defend themselves, that is their right and choice. But to deny the God-given right of arming and defending themselves and their loved ones and their neighbors to OTHERS is a clear violation of God’s will. And there are many (myself included) who believe that Jesus’ admonition (repeating what was written in the Torah) to “love thy neighbor as thyself” very well may MANDATE an obligation for me to come to the defense of others, while Paul’s warning that “he who does not care for his own family is worse than an infidel” is properly understood to include NOT just ensuring that they have food, clothing, and shelter, but defense against spiritual AND physical attack.

Politics 2014 – Election Day

In leading up to election day, apparently at least 1600 preachers chose to violate the law and challenge the federal government by endorsing candidates and political issues FROM THE PULPIT in defiance of the infamous Johnson Amendment which forbids any organization with 501c3 (or similar) standing from doing so: (Their punishment is to lose their 501c3 non-profit, “tax-free” status.) These “rogue” preachers are telling the IRS to “sue me,” but so far the IRS is not doing anything. The reasoning is unknown.

In the runup to the election on Tuesday, the Fuehrer made a campaign stop in Pennsylvania where the venue was barely 1/4 filled, with many seats obviously empty. Is this because he is not so popular even with Democrats these days, or is it because not even Democrats can be vetted by the Secret Service to be allowed close to him for even a few minutes? Or are people afraid that if they try to go see him speak, the FBI, Secret Service, NSA, DEA, and other agencies will investigate them and find something bad about them? Maybe the amazing thing is that were actually 5500 people in Pennsylvania that were allowed in!

Thanks to Tim for this one: A Texas city has become an unlikely battleground for fracking, as voters decide whether to ban fracking, complaining about noise, traffic, and having gas wells near houses. This is insane: Denton is apparently no longer a part of Texas, or at least there are too many residents of this city of 123,000 that are not Texans. (Texan is not just an accident by birth but of culture: Texas has been able to assimilate people from every culture and society on earth, but these people appear NOT to have been assimilated.) I have lived in and visited MANY cities and towns in Texas, and every one – even that cesspool of Tranziism that Austin has become, has oil and gas wells and truck traffic associated with exploration, drilling, and production. And the odor, too: that sweet smell of MONEY and having decent wages and salaries. Of course, like people who try to ban cows from farmyards and pastures and rangeland, and who build their mini-mansions under the approaches of major international airports then try to close the airports down, these denizens of Denton who infest the land are stupid and falsely selfish.

This and that

Well, well, oil dived this week, now (Tuesday) at below $79 a barrel here in the States for West Texas Intermediate. Various people place the reason on the Saudi decision to give Americans a discount on oil for December, to see if they can drive the Stateside price down enough to slow fracking and directional drilling and all the other things that mean that the US is producing more oil than Arabia or anyone else in the world, and that we just don’t really NEED the Saudis anymore. As a result, gasoline has dropped again, and hopefully still will drop more. Meanwhile, even with winter coming on, heating oil is dropping in price. And as the dollar strengthens against other currencies (like $1.25 euros to the dollar), gold is now more than 30 dollars below $1200 (at 1169.40 per ounce) and silver is just at $16.17 per ounce. Keep in mind all of this can and will change in a heartbeat, because of things like elections and beheadings and Mr. Putin’s latest speech.

Mama’s Note: So frustrating to read over and over how terrible and economy destroying it is for the oil price to go down and gas to get less expensive… as if the potential for lower prices on nearly everything else was insignificant. Shipping is probably the single highest cost for anything you buy, right after labor and maybe taxes. Lowering the cost for farming, manufacturing and shipping can bring the price food and other necessities back into the realm of possibility for those on ordinary budgets, as well as improve life for everyone else. Low energy costs reduces the pressure on wages, thus allowing lower costs for goods and services – improving the job market along the way. Once again, the true free market is the only rational way to run an economy.